Hey everyone, after last week’s “blast from the past” diversion of repainting an old Star Wars action figure, let’s return to my Ordo Scriptorum retinue once again for this week. Allow me to share the latest completed inquisitorial operatives with you:

While most work on Inquisitor Orlant’s retinue is being spent on actually finishing models that have been built years ago, in an effort to make a dent in my painting backlog, the warband also keeps taking on new members as it develops. Take a look:

I. Screaming into the void

Let’s start with a very recent addition to the project: When most of the characters for Inquisitor Orlant’s retinue had already been hammered out, and while I was making good progress on the project, PDH, whose thoughts on the nature of the Ordo Scriptorum had originally inspired the project to begin with, pointed out to me that Orlant still needed his own astropath: One of Peter’s ideas for an organisation dealing so heavily in secrets lost and rediscovered knowledge was that every Inquisitor of the Ordo would have their own astropath, to better relay whatever secrets they had discovered to their superiors in the most direct fashion imaginable in the 41st millennium. And while the idea of having to come up with a totally new model to represent an astropath had me slightly wary for about five minutes, I also realised that this would provide me with yet another chance to channel inspiration I had drawn from Wayne England’s artwork.

I instantly recalled his illustrations for the various psyker disciplines (originally printed in the Dark Heresy rulebook and recently reused both for the 8th edition 40k rulebook and a Warhammer Community post). One in particular, seemed pretty ideal as a starting point for an astropath. This one here:

Illustration by Wayne England

My original plan was to use the Dark Eldar Medusae model as a base for the conversion, seeing how it already seemed so close to the artwork in many ways:

And while this would have worked pretty well, I discovered that the model had gone out of production. So instead of going on a wild goose chase in an attempt to procure it, I decided to force myself to actually use the bitz I already had at my disposal to come up with my own astropath conversion.

So here’s my interpretation. It’s not a perfect fit, but I think you’ll be able to see a certain resemblance:

Fortunately enough, I still had a pair of legs from the plastic Necromancer — they even came with a book worn at the hip, which was a fun little coincidence. A torso piece from the Genestealer Hybrids provided both the astronaut look that seemed rather fitting for an astropath, but also a slightly eerie, ever so subtly Gigeresque quality that matched the somewhat sinister general vibe of the warband.

And the Empire flagellant head with an almost picture perfect representation of the hairstyle appearing in the artwork, was a bit of a godsend, of course — that being said, the process of adding a Greenstuff bandage across the astropath’s eyes actually had me on the verge of a screaming fit, as the material just wouldn’t stick to the darn face. I am really glad I managed to pull it off in the end 😉

Possibly the most involved part of the conversion was to build a suitable staff: It was spliced together from the haft of a Dark Eldar Hellion glaive and a couple of imperial bitz.

Oh, and here’s an angle matching the artwork that inspired the conversion a bit more closely:

Again, I’ll admit that my astropath isn’t really a perfect reproduction of the artwork, but rather takes some pointers from the illustration.

When It came to painting the model, my Ordo Scriptorum recipe was well established enough at this point to turn the paintjob into a pretty straightforward affair — I did discover that those Genestealer hybrid torso pieces look absolutely terrific when painted in glossy black, incidentally 😉

One area where I had to compromise a bit was the bandage across the model’s eyes: My original plan had been to try and add some lettering to it, but I quickly realised that there was just not enogh space there to come up with something that wouldn’t turn into a jumbled mess of squiggles, so I decided to leave the bandage bare. I also went for a slightly darker colour to create a better contrast against the pale face. In the end, I think it was a sensible choice that makes the model less similar to the art, but arguably makes it work better in and of itself.

Anyway, here’s the finished model:

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Ordo Scriptorum Astropath

All Inquisitors of the Ordo Scriptorum are assigned an astropath at the same time they receive their Inquisitorial Rosette. This agreement and gift from the Adeptus Astra Telepathica goes back to the beginning of the Ordo Scriptorum, when they were a breakaway sect of the Ordo Hereticus. The need for such a fine tool has proven its worth countless times, for having direct access to telepathic communication has saved many lives. In the eyes of the Ordo Scriptorum, the sooner mistakes are exposed to the relevant authorities to rectify the better.

And here’s a – slightly tweaked – comparison picture showing the artwork and the actual model side by side:

II. MOAR SKULLZ!

You are probably all familiar with the old Warhammer adage of “When in doubt, use MOAR SKULLZ!”, and as it turned out, Inquisitor Orlant’s warband also needed at least one additonal skull 😉

Seriously, though, while looking at the warband and comparing it to the one that had come before, Inquisitor Arslan’s retinue, I realised that Arslan’s merry gang featured two pretty cool servo-skulls/familiars, while such a model was missing from my Ordo Scriptorum team. But servo-skulls are a cool and quintessental part of 40k, and also a sensible wargear choice for an Inquisitor, and I also happened to still have the servo-skull from the Deathwatch:Overkill boxed set in my bitzbox, so I decided to add him to the warband:

I didn’t really change anything about the skull, as it already had that slightly sinister, yet elegant vibe that I think fits the Ordo Scriptorum rather well. I did make sure the servo-skull’s trailing cables interacted with some torn book pages on the base, however.

So here’s the finished servo-skull:

Certainly not a major player in the warband, but good fun and easy to finish. Moving on 😉

III. Masked Bodyguard

Now where the astropath and servo-skull are recent additions to Inquisitor Orlant’s warband, the next model in line had been sitting on top of my pile of unpainted models for a rather long time. We are talking about this lady here:

Bruticus had originally envisioned his character as a member of a sun cult, venerating the Emperor of Manking in his sun aspect. and I loved both the concept and its execution so much that I wanted to build a model similar to Bruticus’ character.

I originally started with a Blood Angels Sanguinary Guard helmet, a torso from a Coven Throne Vampire and some Dark Eldar Wych parts. To be perfectly honest, however, the inital build rather lacked direction, moving from a very Dark Eldar-eque model…

…to something that seemed more like some kind of gladiator:

The one element that remained firmly in place was the concept behind the head: I always knew I wanted to splice together a Sanguinary Guard helmet (chosen for its obvious sun motif) with the lower half of a female Wych head. The initial conversion lacked a lot of finesse, however:

Thanks to some very helpful feedback from the Ammobunker’s INQ28 board back in the day, I realised that the face might have been a good idea, but it needed far more work. So I cut it all apart again, shaved some tiny amounts of plastic, carefully sanded down the mask’s features to be less masculine, very carefully glued it all together again, and ended up with this:

In the end, some WFB Empire arms were what finally made the model come together, turning it into its final incarnation as a masked bodyguard:

When it came to actually making the character a part of Orlant’s retinue, the feedback was generally unfavourable: Most commenters argued that the rather elegant carnival getup didn’t really mesh well with a warband mostly occupied with exploring sunken libraries and dusty archives.

But while that assessment definitely had some merit, I have always felt that there is also another angle to Orlant’s warband and his character, a slightly elegant and debonair look that is present in some elements of the retinue, and in some of its members: the colour of Orlant’s robes, that snazzy scaled cloak worn by his Interrogator or even the deadly elegance of the Clockwork Assassin.

To me, the masked bodyguard was another chance to explore this secondary angle to the warband, and I also like the idea that Inquisitors will attract a motley crew of operatives during their work, and not each of their henchmen – and -women – may be suited to the same kind of task. So if Orlant wants to hit an underground bibliocathedra, he might bring the creepy bureaucultist to help him deal with the place’s ancient filing system, but during a social function, he would definitely need somewhat more presentable retainers. Towards this end, the masked operative might seem like a misfit, but she also presents an interesting glimpse of the versatility present in an Inquisitor’s retinue.

Painting should have been as easy as applying my tried and true recipe again — however, one thing that happened during the painting process was that I decided that I wanted to use a darker skin tone for the character. I was actually rather frustrated when I realised that I would always default to caucasian skin tones when painting, and seeing how I had wanted to try my hand at something different for quite a while, this character seemed like a good occasion to break away from old habits. There was also the fact that the bodyguard and Alizebeth Selandrine shared a similar look, due to both making use of Dark Eldar Wych parts, so going for different skin tones also had the added benefit of making sure the characters would look suitably different from one another.

Anyway, here’s what I came up with:

I am actually really happy with how the skin colour adds a completely different dynamic to the entire figure! There’s also the fact that combining the Venetian carnical getup with dark skin also makes for exactly the kind of eclecticism that seems so quintessentially 40k to me.

Those sheathed blades/throwing knives on the model’s back were a bit of an eleventh hour addition, by the way — they were originally part of the Yvraine model I used to build Countess Mandelholtz, and seemed like the perfect addition to Orlant’s bodyguard.

Here’s a look at the finished model:

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Masked Bodyguard

While much of Tiberias Orlant’s work is spent in dusty archieves and long lost bibliocathedra, the tasks of an Inquisitor are manifold, and often make it necessary to move through all layers of Imperial society. For those cases where interaction with the upper strata of the Velsen Sector is necessary, Orlant has cultivated the cover identity of a wealthy and elegant collector of the obscure, with eclectic interests and very deep pockets. Always at his side in the spires and courts of Velsen is a mysterious, masked bodyguard, whose athletic poise and fluid grace betray her utter deadliness.

While working on the model, I realised that I actually tried to channel the look and feel of two particularly cool characters of colour from videogames I have recently enjoyed: Vanasha (from Horizon Zero Dawn)…

When all is said and done, I am pretty pleased with the finished model! And, as an added benefit, she very much counts as another model for Azazel’s “Neglected Model May” challenge, — so that makes four models for the challenge! What’s more, I am confident that next month’s challenge, focusing on units, should give me the incentive to finish the warband’s final member, the jolly chap on the right here:

That one last model is really all that’s still missing for Inquisitor Orlant’s retinue to be finished: The warband certainly has a rather nice and rounded out look by now, if I do say so myself:

So that’s it for this week’s update! I would love to hear any thoughts you might have about today’s models, or about the state of the warband as a whole! Please let me hear your thoughts in the comments!

Yet more INQ28 content this week, as I have finally managed to complete one of my longest running projects: The retinue of Inquisitor Erasmus Gotthardt.

Now Gotthardt himself is one of my oldest INQ28 models at this point, as are some of his retainers: The models were built back in 2011, and from a much smaller bitzbox, I might add. I have been working on the warband ever since, adding a character here and tweaking a paintjob there. But for the most part, the retinue has been finished since 2016 — except for one last elusive model.

And to be perfectly honest, I have been putting off this one paintjob for a long time, mostly because I didn’t know whether or not I could do the model justice. But thanks to the various community challenges from fellow hobbyists Azazel and Alex, I have been blazing through quite a few neglected models lately, so I thought I would use this surge of motivation to finally face my fears, so to speak.

But what is this dreaded missing model I keep referring to? Well, this lass here, Elisha Gorgo:

The model was actually built all the way back in 2013, if you can believe it, when I was lucky enough to get my hands on the female vampires from the Coven Throne kit and really wanted to use them to create some characters for INQ28. I still think those are some of the best female models GW has ever released, even if the “vampiresses in period dresses” shtick might not be for anyone 😉

Anyway, I chose my favourite model from the trio to build a member for Inquisitor Gotthardt’s retinue. Unfortunately, the vampires had already been assembled by the previous owner, and due to the very delicate, slender sculpts, there was only so much I could do to convert them — which somewhat explains Elisha’s seemingly tranced-out pose 😉

I thought this actually worked well for a psyker, though, so that was what she would become. I spent ages looking for the right pair of legs, finally coming across some High Elf archer legs that worked really well (although not everyone was a fan of the “harem pants” look when I originally posted her on the various forums). I also exchanged her clawlike hands for gloved hands from the Dreamforge Games Eisenkern Stormtroopers that looked much less cronelike. But really, it was a rather straightforward kitbash. The prospect of having to paint the model was the difficult part: I really didn’t want to mess up, mostly because I wouldn’t be able to get another shot at working with these bitz without having to purchase an entire Coven Throne.

And even with my fresh committment to finishing the model, I was still nervous enough about this paintjob to actually mock up the intended colour scheme beforehand in Photoshop, something I don’t think I have ever done before:

We usually don’t get to see much blue in Inquisitor warbands, and I wanted to change that. I also really like turquoise as a spot colour, so that informed my colour choices as well.

The actual painting process mainly consisted of trying to match the mockup as closely as possible while doing my best not to ruin the face 😉

Which turned out to be a bit of a challenge: I found out that I really don’t have the brush control and technical finesse to sail through a delicate paintjob like this. But here’s what I came up with after a while:

I actually do wish I had managed to pull off a neater paintjob on her face. That being said, I did manage to bring it back from the brink after almost considering it ruined, so I think I should probably be reasonably happy.

Something that doesn’t really come across in the photos is how both the corsage as well as the pants have a slight metallic sheen, in order to hint at different materials and fabrics used for her dress: I simply mixed some Leadbelcher into the paint for those areas. Apart from that, her entire dress has been painted in different mixes of black, white and Vallejo’s Milenario Turquoise.

At this point, I was basically prepared to call the model finished — to tell you the truth, I was actually still terrified of ruining it 😉

But at the same time, I couldn’t stop thinking about how a subtle blue OSL effect on the palms of her hands could be used to both hint at her channeling her powers and also explain her pose a bit better. But the hands were very small, and I didn’t really want it to end up looking tacky. In the end, I buckled up and just did it, though. I’ll let you be the judges of whether or not I succeeded:

Elisha Gorgo

born Countess Elisha Haxta di Colasante Mordina-Gorgo

Elisha Gorgo is the eldest daughter of the influential Imperial House Mordina-Gorgo. The girl started displaying psykana powers at a very young age. Under normal circumstances, this would have meant a dreary and possibly short life aboard one of the Blackships, but her influential father used every ounce of his authority to keep her “affliction” a secret. Due to her powers, she has been sequestered away from other people for most of her life and has grown up very shy and demure as a consequence.

Her secret was only uncovered when Inquisitor Gotthardt visited her homeworld as part of an investigation. And, for an undisclosed reason, he chose to make her a member of his retinue, arguably saving her from the far more dire fate that might have awaited her, had she encountered one of his more hardline colleagues.

When all is said and done, I am pretty happy with the way Elisha has turned out: Painting a model after such a long time always means you have to compromise — to settle on one definite way the model will look over all the possibilities you have been pondering in the back of your head. All technical gripes notwithstanding, I do think she makes for a rather stunnig addition to Inquisitor Gotthardt’s warband — because let’s not forget that the retinue is now actually finished. Take a look:

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Inquisitor Erasmus Gotthardt and retinue
Ordo Hereticus Velsen

Once again, let us take a look at all of the warband’s members in turn:

Inquisitor Erasmus Gotthardt,an Inquisitor of the Ordo Hereticus Velsen in uneasy pursuit of his former friend, Inquisitor Lazarus Antrecht.

Father Endric Harlan,a Schola Progenium Drill-Abbot and survivor of the Quelling of St. Berthold, a highly classified Inquisitorial operation.

Remus Ingram, a former member of the Riftyr Hiveguard turned inquisitorial investigator, and Balzepho, his cyber-mastiff.

Looking back at my three “big” finished retinues so far – Inquisitor Antrecht and his freakshow, Inquisitor Arslan and his sinister Ordo Hereticus operatives, and now Inquisitor Gotthardt and his retainers – it’s fun to see the different design approaches at play: Antrecht and retinue were a way to explore radicalism and the way rogue Inquisitors are driven towards more and more monstrous and inhuman allies. Inquisitor Arslan’s retinue was, in many ways, an exercise in cohesion, with all of the members sharing a very similar colour palette and overall visual aesthetic. Now Gotthardt and his crew take yet another approach:

Like Arslan, Gotthardt is a puritan, but he is also less extreme in his views: Think Eisenhorn in his earlier years, and you’re not far off the mark. And unlike Arslan’s warband, Gotthardt’s followers are a pretty colourful bunch. As I’ve said before, the warband makes use of many of the classic character archetypes from the Inquisitor rulebook, taking direct inspiration from actual 54mm models or artwork from the book in more than one case. I think of the retinue as just the colourful collection of individuals an enterprising Inquisitor would meet during his work and turn into a highly individual group of followers.

Again, each of this groups embodies a different aspect of the Inquisition: Antrecht and his crew embody radicalism that borders on the heretical. Arslan’s warband is full-on fire and brimstone and Inquisitorial ostentatiousness. Gotthardt’s team has a swashbuckling, picaresque feel by comparison — more Dan Abnett than John Blanche, for once.

Interestingly enough, this is probably also the retinue with the biggest amount of backstory so far, mostly because the whole project has basically taken on a life of its own over the years: PeeDee the Monkey joined the group when PDH sent me that little powder monkey that just seemed ideal as a pet for a flamboyant trader like Iskander Gagarin. Trooper Koltz only came into being because Esteban Revas just looked like the kind of noble fop who would have a manservant lugging around his smoking utensils — but both characters actually grew into something way more interesting and fleshed out. Just take a look at Esteban’s backstory, in case you are interested.

Anyway, enough rambling — I am just happy to have finished this long running project!
Oh, and since the completion of Elisha’s paintjob actually finishes the retinue, I think I’ll be counting this as yet another completion for Azazel’s Squad:March! challenge 🙂

And with that, we have come to the end of the road, at least for today.

Once again, I would love to hear any feedback you might have! And, as always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!

Today, let’s take another look at my desk, where a rather eclectic collection of INQ28 characters is currently being built. Apart from the usual mix of fanatics, mutants and Inquisitorial operatives, it is my very great pleasure to actually be able to add some female characters to my various retinues. But all in good time! Let us take a look at all the different retinues in characters:

1.) Inquisitor Gotthardt’s retinue

Even though only the good Inquisitor himself has been painted so far, Gotthardt’s retinue is pretty far along from a composition standpoint: With Rogue Trader Iskander Gagarin, former Guard officer Esteban Revas as well as a Drill Abbot and retired Arbites Judge (which will both need some additional background), the warband already comprised an interesting collection of archetypes and narrative hooks. But then, inspiration struck yet again and made me build two more members for the warband:

Trooper Koltz

First up, looking at Cpt. Esteban Revas’ military background and upbringing, I thought it would be interesting for him to have a retainer of his own: One Trooper Salvador “Sal” Koltz, sworn to serve the Revas family because his life was saved by Esteban’s late father. I imagine Koltz as both a experienced veteran and a sly and deceptively clever person, always hiding his smarts behind a veneer of lower class joviality. Here’s a WIP shot of the model:

In addition to being Revas’ personal retainer, Koltz also serves as his master’s “packing mule”, so I gave him all kinds of baggage to lug around — I imagine him to be carrying all kinds of stuff, ranging from sensible military grade equipment to Revas’ personal smoking utensils, shoeshine, etc.

It was actually a delicate balance to maintain, since adding any more stuff would have made the model look over-encumbered and silly. Anyway, I am quite pleased with Koltz. The only thing I might change is to exchange his head with one from the WFB Empire free company. Apart from that, though, he really looks the part!

Elisha Gorgo

Finding decent bitz to build female characters is always a bit of a challenge, and especially so with GW’s range. The female models available are few and far between, and those that actually exist usually sport a very distinct look (Wood Elves, High Elves,…). So it was by a brilliant stroke of luck that I managed to pick up the three female vampires from the Vampire Counts Coven Throne during an ebay auction. Granted, these ladies also have a pretty special look, but not only does it match the strange and eclectic design of the 40k universe rather well, but I also think these models are among the best female models ever released by GW — unfortunately, the normal way of picking them up is to buy a kit that comes at 50 Euros a pop…

Anyway, thanks to the lucky coincidence outlined above, I found myself in the possession of the three models (along with some more very nice bitz from the same kit). So I immediately started to build the first female member for Inquisitor Gotthardt’s retinue: Elisha Gorgo…

…or, actually, Countess Elisha Haxta di Colasante Mordina Gorgo. My rough background idea for her is that she is the daughter of a powerful Imperial noble. She started displaying psychic powers at a very young age. Normally, that would have meant a dreary and possibly short life aboard one of the Blackships, although her influential father pulled all kinds of strings in order to keep her “affliction” a secret. Due to her powers, she has been sequestered away from other people for most of her life and grew up very shy and demure as a consequence. Her secret was only uncovered when Inquisitor Gotthardt visited her homeworld as part of an investigation. And for some reason (which will need to be pretty good, I suppose), he chose to make her a member of his retinue.

While the warband can definitely use a psyker from a rules perspective, I mainly think that she could serve to introduce some interesting character dynamics into the retinue: Esteban Revas is feeling immensely protective of her for several reasons: They both come from a noble background. They both lost their standing and home. And there’s also the fact that she reminds him of Archduchess Cyrine, the young ruler of his homeworld. I could also see the Rogue Trader Iskander Gagarin constantly trying to woo her. In any case, she could be interesting from a narrative point of view.

The model itself is a relatively easy kitbash, using my favourite upper body from the Coven Throne kit and combining it with some High Elf archer legs. I also replaced both hands with hands from the Dreamforge Games Eisenkern Stormtroopers (yes, really!), because the original hands were far too claw-like — befitting an ancient vampiress, but certainly not an Imperial debutante…

Anyway, the hands from the Stormtrooper kit (which is fantastic, by the way — I’ll absolutely need to do a detailed writeup on it, one of these days) were a perfect fit. All in all, I am really happy with how Elisha turned out, and I think she makes for a stunning addition to Inquisitor Gotthardt’s retinue!

With the addition of these two characters, I believe we can call Gotthardt’s warband completed from a conceptional standpoint. Here are all the models together:

So all that remains now is for the characters to be painted (and receive their respective backgrounds).

2.) Inquisitor Fiegmund’s retinue

Where Gotthardt is fundamentally a rational and levelheaded Inquisitor, especially for a member of the Ordo Hereticus, the maimed Inquisitor Fiegmund is a man possessed and driven over the edge by his hatred for heretics in general and Inquisitor Antrecht in particular. His fragile mental state carries over to his warband, which comprises all kinds of highly dubious and sinister individuals: the Skull Collector, for one. There are also men who revel in the ability to vent their religious zeal and desire for violence while serving the Inquisitor, among them…

Practicals Pask and Gretsch

I begun work on these guys fairly recently, so they’ll still need some smoothing out. Pask and Gretsch are religious nutjobs who would be dead or behind bars if it weren’t for Fiegmund’s intervention: Pask is a former guardsmen whose religious zeal set him at odds with his fellow soldiers. Gretsch is just a madman and killer, selected by Fiegmund for his unquestioning loyalty and religious fervour. Both are pretty easy conversions of Dark Vengeance cultist models. But I think that, even at this early stage, both models already exude an air of gothic menace that’s a great match for Inquisitor Fiegmund’s retinue…

Death Cultist

This bonnie lass is basically a Dark Eldar Wych, transformed into a Death Cultist through the addition of a couple of bitz. The head is a Dark Vengeance cultist head, and while it may seem slightly clunky, I imagine the mask hides some horrible bionic augmentations, so it still works. I also added a flintlock pistol and tilt plate for a more gothic, medieval feel — maybe the Fleur de Lys icon on her shoulderpad even hints towards her cult having served as a recruitment center for the Adepta Sororitas at one point?

Anyway, I am rather happy with the model: She almost manages to convey a certain Blanchian vibe, and what more could I ask?

3.) Inquisitor Alvar’s retinue

In addition to Gotthardt’s and Fiegmund’s warbands, there is also an Ordo Xenos warband to consider. First up, I put some more work into the conversion of my first Xenos Inquisitor, now named…

Inquisitor Titus Alvar

The body of the Dark Vengeance cultist champ I had used as a base for the conversion was treated with GS to mask his heretical origins. I also replaced the original sword with a Dark Elf sabre: While it’s not too on-the-nose Eldar-ish, it still reads as a possible Xenos artifact. And I got my hands on one of my favourite heads ever (from the Empire Celestial Hurricanum kit), courtesy of my fellow hobbyist Gerner (cheers, mate!).

The addition of the head really transforms the model into a character, if you ask me:

Expect a look at the finished model soon!

And here’s the Xenos warband so far: Inquisitor Alvar, accompanied by his trusted IG veteran and Kroot pathfinder:

I also used some more female parts from the Coven Throne kits to start and assemble another member for Alvar’s retinue, a Sun Cultist:

Sun Cultist

I had had this idea for quite a while, but then I was inspired anew by Bruticus’ fantastic sun cultist character. I knew that I would really have to get my ass in gear to produce a model that would hold up to his fantastic conversion. Here’s my first inital mockup of the cultist:

The legs and arms are from the Dark Eldar Wyches, while the torso once again came from one of the Coven Throne vampires. The mask was painstakingly spliced together from a Sanguinary Guard helmet and a Wych head — I even had to touch the head up after already considering it finished, since some of the guys over at the Ammobunker pointed out to me that the facial proportions were a little off. And they were right, damn them! 😉

Anyway, here’s the finished head:

I won’t go into too much detail about the process of getting this sorted out. Suffice to say you wouldn’t believe how fiddly a conversion it was…

The next step will be to figure out which arms and weapons to use on her. Either a more classical look…

…or a cultist axe picking up the sun motif?

In any case, I’ll take my time with this model. It would be horrible to hurry her along (and thereby messing up the conversion) after having spent such a long time on that masked face…

4.) Other Inquisitorial agents, mutants and shady characters

To wind this up, let me show you some additional models and mockups for various characters. I am usually doing several of these at once, which relaxes me. There’s little background in place for most of the following models, and most of them are very WIP — you have been warned…

Sanctioned Psyker

Again, a relatively simple kitbash. I tried to approximate the look of the sanctioned psyker models released by GW some time ago, only somewhat less unhinged. This guy looks like a military man and a professional to me, but there’s little background beyond that…

Mutant Bounty Hunter

I also started painting the twist Bounty Hunter I posted some time ago. Some details are still missing, but the model is mostly complete at this point:

Looks like one mean mother, doesn’t he? 😉

I also salvaged an old Gorkamorka Orc by making him into yet another mutant which I’ll be calling “Old Vicehand” for now…

And, finally, I bought the remains of a Necromunda starter box from ebay a while ago. And while the models were all there, they were mostly in a truly abysmal condition. I started rebuilding one of the Orlock gangers with a couple of new parts, and will probably make him into a Mad Max-like NPC ganger:

Certainly not fantastic yet, but he’ll be getting there in the end.

So yeah, as you can see, INQ28 always allows for many different and interesting characters from all walks of life to be worked on at the same time. I, for one, find this extremely relaxing and, indeed, stimulating from a creative point of view!

So, any suggestions for any of those characters? I’d love to hear any C&C you might have in the comments section! And, as always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!

Some time ago, dear cousin Andy gave me the WFB Chaos Lord on Manticore for my birthday, which was quite an excellent present, since it’s one of those kits that I was always drawn to but would probably never have purchased myself. Because, no matter how you cut it, there’s not that much use for a Manticore in a 40k army in the first place. But while I am still figuring out a use for the beast in question (trust me, I have a couple of ideas…), the kit is very much worth it for the rider bits alone:

You see, the kit comes with enough parts to build two riders for the Manticore: one heavily armoured Chaos Lord and an equally imposing (and quite menacing) Chaos Sorcerer, both with several weapon and head options. While I immediately squirreled away the Chaos Lord for a conversion involving a juggernaut (which you’ll be seeing on this blog sooner rather than later, especially since lords on juggers are so very useful now), the sorcerer was somewhat less essential to me: As you may have gathered, Khorne isn’t too down with that whole psyker thing…

The obvious solution was to make the sorcerer into a member of my Traitor Guard. Already having built a Company Commander and Lord Commissar for my traitors, it was high time to add a traitorous Primaris Pskyer as well.

For this conversion, I took a page from OST’s sorcerer conversion that he did for his Iron Warriors. I was quite inspired by that model, and so I sat down to build my own chaotic Psyker. Take a look:

As you can see, the basic conversion is very similar to OST’s sorcerer, although I made a few small changes: First of all, I didn’t use the chain cloak on the model since I wanted to keep it for a World Eaters conversion (The new Horus Heresy book also tells us that chains do play quite a big role in the World Eaters’ iconography, so that decision turned out to be spot-on). I also wanted the sorcerer to look like he was just about to unleash the powers of the Warp, so I posed his left hand to reflect that. Most of the other parts are directly from the original kit, with only some bits and bobs added to “40k-ify” the model a bit.

The rock formation on the base came from the Chaos Lord in Terminator armour. I added half an old WFB skeleton for some additional flavour. I also wanted to make it look like the model was floating, so I used some deft gluing to create that illusion. Take a look:

When it came to painting the model, I made sure to have the colours fit the rest of my Traitor Guard. I also added the trademark crude chaos symbols to the model’s cloak. Overall, the paintjob is a bit cleaner and less ragtag though, in order to make the model look more dignified and regal.

I really think these bitz are some of the best GW has ever put out: Just look at that menacing facemask. Brilliant!

To show how the sorcerer is channeling the powers of the Warp, I added simple OSL effects to the runes all over his equipment as well as to the open palm of his left hand:

The hand was more of a spontaneous idea, but I think it really works.

As for the potential uses of this model, the most obvious role it could play would be that of a Primaris Psyker. However, given the model’s imposing frame, I think it could work reasonably well as a CSM Sorcerer as well. And finally, it may even serve double-duty as a cult leader in games of INQ28 as well: As a matter of fact, this guy looks so cool together with the Dark Vengeance cultists that I am considering adding on of the small, cog-like chaos icons worn by them to this model to tie them together even more.

As with the rest of my Traitor Guard, there’s very little background in place at this point. However, the myterious and menacing nature of the model makes me think that this sorcerer may have been instrumental in the original regiment’s fall to the Ruinous Powers. Hmm….

A quote:

You fools! Your gods have blinded you with visions of glory and power, of a golden future that awaits you in their service. But our lord has shown us more than you could ever imagine. There are no empires awaiting you. In the endless cold between the stars, there is only the hunter and his prey. And those who were once the former and are now the latter. All that remains is the hunt, for only the hunt is eternal.